Chellsie the Champ

Memmel comes to Hawaii as the world titlist; her strongest challenger may be a U.S. teammate

WHEN Chellsie Memmel looks around for her closest competition, she often doesn't need to search beyond her team's practice area.

Memmel edged U.S. teammate Nastia Liukin by one thousandth of a point for the all-around title at last year's world championships in Australia, and keeping up with each other has helped both stay sharp heading into the Pacific Alliance Gymnastics Championships while giving the U.S. women's squad a formidable combination.

PACIFIC ALLIANCE CHAMPIONSHIPS

"We like competing against each other, especially for the team, because then we both do our best for the U.S.," Memmel said following a practice in advance of tonight's women's team and all-around event at Blaisdell Arena. "I think all of us being together at camps makes everyone better."

The U.S. team of Memmel, Liukin, Jana Bieger and Shayla Worley arrived in Honolulu on Monday following a training camp in Houston last week. The 14-team meet features some of the top gymnasts from Pacific Rim countries, including the top three finishers at the 2005 women's world championships -- Memmel, Liukin and Australia's Monette Russo.

"When you look at the international landscape you have the Olympic Games, you have the world championships and this is the next biggest international event that we participate in," said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics.

"If you look at the medal count from (the 2004 Olympics in) Athens, the Pacific Rim countries -- China, Japan, USA, Australia, Canada -- were all prominent on the medal podium."

The selection process just to make the U.S. team, which won nine medals (four gold, four silver and a bronze) at last year's world championships, often serves as a prelude for the actual event for both the junior and senior gymnasts.

Memmel placed second behind Liukin in the uneven bars and balance beam at the world championships, but finished just ahead of her in the all-around standings to become the first American to capture the all-around gold since Shannon Miller in 1994.

"It's a very good thing," U.S. coach Martha Karolyi said of having the gold and silver medalists in the same gym. "We always like to have a certain number of high-level gymnasts pushing each other, because there is a good competition. Everybody would like to come out on top. ... But we reinforce the idea that if you're doing your very best for yourself you're helping the team."

Though the stakes are often high when they enter a meet, Liukin said the competition for the top spot stops at the arena door.

"We all want to be that one girl standing on the first-place podium with that gold medal around her neck. But we don't take it too far," said Liukin, the daughter of four-time Olympic medalist Valeri Liukin and 1987 rhythmic world champion Anna Liukin. "We stay really good friends. When we get out of the gym it's just two normal girls talking.

"We're all really close friends," she added. "Even when we're not together we always talk on the computer or on the phone. We stay connected and I think that's the best way a team can be, for all of us to have the bond."

Memmel, who is getting back into top form following surgery to remove a bone spur in her foot, said life hasn't changed that much since adding the prefix of "world champion" to her name, outside of getting recognized more often and being honored at Milwaukee Bucks games back home in Wisconsin.

She missed out on the Pacific Alliance Championships two years ago due to a broken foot suffered during the selection camp prior to the meet and was an alternate for the 2004 team that won the silver medal in Athens.

"I was disappointed at first, but then I went home and started training to prove to myself that I could do it and to show everyone else that I could compete for the U.S. and do well," said Memmel.

Home grown: Shantessa Pama's selection to the U.S. junior team gave her a chance to return to Hawaii. She was born in Kona and moved to California when she was 8. She said this week's meet will be the first time her father, Phillip, will get to watch her compete.